John Seed interviews painter Peri Schwartz whose work is currently on view in the three-person exhibition Dwellings: Christopher Benson, Tom Birkner, and Peri Schwartz at Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, on view through August 24, 2013.

Schwartz comments: "For me, finishing a painting is a balancing act. I want to retain the freshness of the paint and at the same time get everything in the right position. The painting is usually finished when I can't bear to move one more object… From the beginning of my art education, I have been interested in the compositions of great paintings, particularly Degas, Morandi and Diebenkorn. What interests me most is how they take a subject and use it to make a brilliant composition. I tend to seesaw back and forth with paintings that are more and then less abstract. Because working directly from life is so essential to me, I can't imagine doing a painting or drawing where the viewer is left without a sense of real space. Being on that edge is where I want to be."